Testimonials

A Calming Space Without Judgement

"Well, what can I say? Visiting Dawn at The Garden Room has been so eye-opening. It is such a calming place where nothing you say
is judged. Just a listening ear. The Grief Recovery Method really helped me to understand and accept my emotions. I feel like I will be able to deal with any grief I may have in my
Life."

October 2016

My Pain Was Real and
Mattered.

"This course brought about a huge
transformation in my life and my perspective when dealing with my past losses and grief. Although I am not stereotypically labelled as someone who has suffered huge losses (such as the death of a
loved one), Dawn helped me realise the pain I had experienced throughout my life was still real, that it mattered and that I didn't have to continue with it weighing me down and affecting my
every-day life. This was significant for me because often I had questioned my emotions and not feeling they were justified because I hadn't experienced the right 'type of grief' to bring about
those feelings."

"Dawn has a very special ability to deliver clarity, understanding and compassion around
a sensitive topic and I always left feeling lighter and more positive! Throughout the course I was amazed by the lessons learnt from the handbook Dawn uses which is very easy to read and relatable.
The content in the programme, for me, was incredibly mind-opening and inspiring. It humanises 'grief' and tackles it head on and practically; which I believe is the only way to be able to acknowledge
pain, accept it and let it go."October 2018

EYE-OPENING AND LIFE CHANGING!

I'm amazed and inspired by what I'm learning. It has been a breath of fresh air not having anyone judging you or writing notes, you can simply be you and reassured that
everything you are feeling is natural and okay.

The techniques learnt have helped me personally to understand my feelings and being able to speak openly and write my thoughts down has helped enormously in my own
journey of recovery.

October 2016

MIND-BLOWING

I liked that therewas no questions or analysis. Your honesty showing your emotions made me feel okay about crying.

The Garden Room is a wonderful safe haven. I feel completely relaxed in the environment Dawn works
in.

October 2016

I am reminded of the bright colourful woman Mel was and it brings me
joy.

Dawn was a close friend of Mel, my soul partner sadly lost to us. Part of Mel was her love of
bright beautiful clothes so Dawn offered to make some things from pieces of Mel's clothes. These items have have been so helpful to me on my journey through grief, how they
have helped me changing as I have changed. When someone you love dearly passes away unexpectedly, well I can only speak for myself but I wanted to hang to as much of Mel as I could just after she
died. Her last voice message on my phone so I could hear her voice for instance, playing it over and over at times trying to fill the huge space in my life her absence had created with something of
her. The things Dawn made from Mel's clothes helped me to let go of Mel as slowly as I needed to. Now the items bring me cheer because rather than me clinging to something I am reminded of the bright
colourful woman Mel was and it brings me joy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Dawn Ford

Keepsakes for himself, his son and daughter.2016

CLARITY, WISDOM & CREATIVITY

I had a lovely lovely day today with the most
gorgeous soul Dawn Ford. Training as Grief Recovery Method Specialists brought us together. Today we had the longest chats, the best moments of clarity, wisdom and creativity together. An amazing
artist and maker of keepsakes for those who we have lost. Please go check out her art it's so so gorgeous and she makes the most beautiful keepsakes, I can't wait to see how she makes my precious
keepsakes into something new I can keep forever.

Feb 2017

IT HUMANISES 'GRIEF' AND TACKLES IT HEAD ON AND
PRACTICALLY.

This course brought about a huge
transformation in my life and my perspective when dealing with my past losses and griefs. Although I
am not stereotypically labelled as someone who has suffered huge losses (such as the death of a loved one), Dawn
helped me realise the pain I had experienced throughout my life was still real, that it mattered
and that I didn't have to continue with it weighing me down and affecting my every-day life. This was significant for me because often I had
questioned my emotions and not feeling they were justified because I hadn't experienced the right 'type of grief' to bring about
those feelings.

Dawn has a very special ability to deliver clarity, understanding and compassion around a sensitive topic and I always left feeling lighter and more positive! Throughout the course I was amazed by
the lessons learnt from the handbook Dawn uses which is very easy to read and relatable. The content in the programme, for me, was incredibly mind-opening and
inspiring. It humanises 'grief' and tackles it head on and practically; which I believe is the
only way to be able to acknowledge pain, accept it and let it go.

It is clear Dawn is so passionate about helping others complete on their losses to bring about positive
changes in their lives and she made me feel relaxed from the first session enabling me to expose my true emotions without any judgement whilst being highly professional. Since starting
and finishing the course I have been telling everyone I know about the Dawn's programme and what I've learnt- literally life changing!

May 2017

Eternally Grateful

I will be eternally grateful to Dawn for the wonderful service she offers, and she's helped both me and my
daughter more than she'll ever know.

May 2017

A very special way of drawing out the difficult things while promoting the positives.

Dawn worked
with us over the course of a year on a very specific project relating to memories and thoughts for the future during a very emotional and difficult period in the schools life. We were all grieving
over the loss of a treasured member of school with our oldest children particularly affected. The Art & Grief workshop led by Dawn became an instrumental part of the grieving and the
recovery process. She has the most incredibly passion, kindness and thoughtfulness and a very special way of drawing out the difficult things while promoting the positives. Art was the medium but
this alone would not have had the same affect. It was Dawn’s personality that gave it such a vibrant and positive feel and one that the children gained so much from.

The adults
who worked with Dawn were also supported and taken on the same positive journey to being able to celebrate the past and the presentand look to the future.

Dawn is
certainly a talented artist but much more. It was a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with and alongside Dawn.

School Art & Memory
Workshop

A lOVELY COMPASSIONATE LADY

Highly recommend Dawn for anyone feeling they're not coping with their grief.

I was stuck in a loop of remembering how my mum passed and unable to move on. Dawn re-awoke my good memories & feelings that I had forgotten. I feel like I've got my mum
back. And to top it off, Dawn is a lovely compassionate lady with lots of compassion and understanding. Even though I've
finished my treatment I still think if her as a good friend. Thank you Dawn. xXx'

February 2018.

Invaluable For
Coping With Any Future Feelings of Loss and Grief.

Three months after
my mother's death, I bumped into Dawn one Monday morning sitting in her usual coffee shop sketching. Fate was certainly with me that day. I burst into tears and poured my heart out. What a relief to
learn of her grief recovery programme - I remember going home that day with a weight off my shoulders.

Dawn has helped me
move forward from the most difficult time in my life. By piecing together all my incomplete past and present emotions and learning to 'forgive' by letting go of all feelings of resentment. Over the 7
week course, she listened to my tearful ramblings, providing me with copious tissues - never judgemental, showing me empathy and in complete confidence - and all in the most idyllic setting of
her garden room with views over the Herefordshire countryside .What I have learnt from the programme will be invaluable for coping with any future feelings of loss and grief ..... Thank
you Dawn x

February
2018

Transformative Programme

"The work that Dawn has taken me through on the Grief Recovery Programme has been transformative. I highly recommend this course if you want to feel
lighter, brighter and ready to skip forward no longer carrying that heavy burden of loss. Dawn is sensitive, intuitive, gently guiding to make sure that negative feelings are truly
released. It's not therapy, it's a lesson for life."

February 2018

A weight off
my shoulders..

Three months after my mother's death, I bumped into Dawn
one Monday morning sitting in her usual coffee shop sketching.Fate was certainly with me that day.I burst into tears and poured my heart out.What a relief to learn of her grief recovery programme - I
remember going home that day with a weight off my shoulders.

Dawn has helped me move forward from the most
difficult time in my life.By piecing together all my incomplete past and present emotions and learning to 'forgive' by letting go of all feelings of resentment.Over the 7 week course,she
listened to my tearful ramblings,providing me with copious tissues - never judgemental, showing me empathy and in complete confidence - and all in the most idyllic setting of her garden room
with views over the Herefordshire countryside .What I have learnt from the programme will be invaluable for coping with any future feelings of loss and grief .... Thank you Dawn
x

May 2018

Extraordinarily
compassionate..

"Dawn creates and holds an
extraordinarily compassionate, non judgemental, caring space that allowed me to identify and let go of my grief. The structured process through which she acts as a guide catalysed a
remarkable transformation in me which liberated me into an fresh phase of my life. Thank you Dawn!" June 2018

The Garden Room is a lovely safe
space.

It is a lovely safe space. I can’t thank
you enough for the grief recovery programme. I’m coping better than I ever did. July 2018?

The way dealing with grief is portrayed
in society is not the way we should deal with grief.

After getting to the lowest point in my
life, my mum told me she knew someone who could possible help me get out of a very dark place I was in. I was very sceptical about going to grief recovery as I thought it was going to be me lying on
a sofa and then being told to say how I feel. Before meeting Dawn and attending the 7 week program I was never a person to talk about my feelings and how I was feeling. As each session passed I felt
myself becoming the person everyone knew me as, a person that is always cracking jokes, having fun and a laugh. Each week I was looking forward to going to my sessions
and talking. Dawn and the grief recovery project has helped me in so many ways and has opened my eyes, and made my realise that the way dealing with grief is portrayed in society is not they way to
deal with grief. If it wasn’t for Dawn and the project I don’t know where I would be today or even be here today. All the information about dealing with grief I leaned I have passed on to friends and
family. Anyone dealing with grief I would tell them straight away to get in contact with Dawn and let her help you. When I first met Dawn she asked me how I was feeling on a scale of 1-10 and it was
1, as the weeks progressed the number of how I was feeling grew each week, and by the end of my sessions I was feeling a very high 9/10. And thanks to Dawn and the program I know that there will be
days where I do feel very low but now I am fully able to deal with them in the correct way. I cannot thank Dawn enough for helping me.

September
2018

Sometimes it is during some of our darkest moments we find the courage to reach out to find support and a chance to find the road to recovery.

August
2018 although surrounded by a loving family and great friends I felt incredible emotional pain, loneliness and a feeling of being totally lost. Whilst scrolling through Facebook one evening I
found a link to the Grief Recovery Programme and decided to message Dawn a few messages exchanged and an appointment was arranged.

My story
started 7 years ago after the loss of my sister to Breast Cancer and the messages I found on my husband's phone to and from his secretary, which I believed amounted to them having an affair. At the
time I wasn’t sleeping, felt emotionally drained and couldn’t concentrate. I went to see my GP and he prescribed Anti Depressants. Initially, these aided with sleep, however after a while they had no
affect at all. So I was referred to a Mental Health Nurse who increased my dosage - twice. In my case this made sleeping impossible. In my darkest times I’d go 72 hours without sleep, mind constantly
racing, also being accused by my husband that I was paranoid, mental and it was all in my head. I couldn’t work and isolated myself.

I can’t
really recall much from November 10th 2011, except to say I felt I couldn’t go on anymore, everything was like walking about in a thick fog, I was so desperate to sleep and shut the world out.
So I consumed a large quantity of red wine (which I don’t even like) took an assortment of tablets and went for a walk.

After
collapsing and being taken to A&E I was seen by a Psychiatrist and referred to the Crisis Team and prescribed sleeping tablets alongside my anti depressants. Regular visits from Crisis Team and
then weekly visits from a mental health nurse.

Throughout this time I just didn’t feel myself, although I took the step to returning to work. Sleep didn’t feel real and I didn’t feel normal. I made the decision to discontinue
my medication. It was a long haul but I made it.

So, here
I was four years later in 2015, I thought life was great but something wasn’t quite right, husband felt distant and my mind was telling we’ve been here before.

Again I
found some messages on his phone and the whole process started again. This time I was determined not to take any medication, still being accused of Paranoia, All in my head and mental
issues.

My
husband left last year, I now know it wasn’t all in my head, paranoia or that I was mental. They had been having an affair on and off for roughly seven years.

I’ve
been apart of someone’s life for 30 years and I felt as if I’d lost half of myself. Hence the feeling of being unworthy and alone.

My first
session with Dawn, I spent the whole hour crying, didn’t really know if the process would work for me but I was so determined not to go the medication route this time I listened and started to read
the book and my completed my first homework.

My
process started with Dawn in August 2018, my last session with Dawn was in January this year, I’ve yet to complete the program as I’m not yet divorced and that part will finalise my journey to
recovery. However, I’ve resolved other issues and have moved on successfully from those.

What did
I learn?

My story
started the day I was born, not seven years ago as I initially thought.

We
really don’t appreciate how the nurture/nature experience defines us to some extent of the paths we follow or how conditioned we are in life.

In my
sessions with Dawn I was able to release, forgive and say goodbye to issues I’d carried with me from childhood without feeling judged or left raw and vulnerable as I did with the mental health
team.

I’ve
started to understand myself, find myself and enjoy myself making changes to my life and understanding myself.

Finding
the courage to realise you need support and take that first step is the hardest. The Grief Recovery Program helps you understand yourself and assist you in becoming the recovered you, knowing and
understanding that the book is also written by people who have suffered grief in many shapes and forms is an added bonus. The homework is a time for reflection and release which aids the whole
finding yourself and empowering you to go on.

The
sessions take place in a comfortable setting, very relaxed. After the sessions I always felt calm and ready to explore the next part.

I’d
really encourage people who are suffering loss of any form to explore this concept of recovery. It most certainly supported me in being where I am today in my life. Feb
2019

My journey began with Dawn & Alice back in March. Unfortunately, I had been experiencing symptoms of chronic pain syndrome and fibromyalgia. After many blood tests with the doctors they
put it down to post viral fatigue and recommended a holiday. At my worst I could not even pick up a cup of tea without experiencing chronic pain in my arms deep inside the tissue of my
muscles. I knew something more was going on with me and sure enough my holiday came and went and I was still suffering.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to meet Alice at a talk about mental health and alternative practices and how they offered another way of treating the body as oppose to just taking
medication which can cause toxicity build up within our systems. This resonated as I had suffered from post-partum psychosis and had been on some pretty heavy drugs during my recovery process.
So, I booked an appointment with Alice and discovered that her and Dawn were doing a study combining the grief recovery programme and Alice’s Reiki, aromatherapy and lifestyle and nutrition
programme. It was a no brainer for me as a mother to a 4 year old it was crucial that I explored an alternative route to enable me to care for him and have a better quality of life.

The combination of the deep emotional work which I embarked on with Dawn and the nutrition plan, aromatherapy and reiki I received from Alice helped to transform my life and for me to regain
energy and vastly reduce the pain I was experiencing to be able to live a full life again. In my case the trauma which I had carried with me from childhood and throughout my life needed to be
released in order for me to heal. Dawn’s life experience, compassion, love and warmth supported this journey beautifully. We laughed and cried together and I relearned that it is ok to let the tears
flow and that it is in fact necessary.

Alice’s kindness and gentle approach to healing complimented the emotional work I did with Dawn beautifully. I have to say that in the middle of the course things got really hard for me as I
released things which I did not even realise I was holding on to. Alice’s magical angel reiki and the aroma touch therapy were perfectly executed to give me that big warm hug at exactly the right
time. Alice really is a beautiful soul and an amazing healing practitioner with a wealth of knowledge. Always on hand to answer any questions I had along my healing journey.

I have just completed the chronic pain study which I started back in March and can honestly say it is the best thing I have done to support my body and soul to do the necessary healing
needed. Profound and unexplainable shifts occurred during my completion session with Dawn on Friday 7th June. I will remember that date as the day I allowed my body and soul to heal
and open the door to peace.

With the utmost gratitude, respect for the amazing work you both do and eternal love in my heart.

Best wishes and love

Emily Powell-Aubrey xxx

June 2019

Dawn Ford

Loss & Wellbeing Specialist

Contact Dawn

To book an appointment or for an informal chat about whether this is the right path for you, please contact me on: